The Exterior Reveal

Our exterior has come a long, long way. Like almost the distance from Mars to Venus. Ask John Gray…that’s long. Sorry. The cheesy jokes ooze out of me especially when I read cliff notes on relationship books. For those of you that have been around for the last three years, you may remember that our house was a foreclosure. A very large, abused foreclosure.

As for our exterior journey, we did a bunch of landscaping. We painted the front door. Twice. We hired the best crew ever to paint. Like basically everything that has been said about the wheel, the iphone, fire and chocolate could be said about these guys.

And now my house doesn’t have a lick of brown on it. In fact, it is really starting to look kinda how we always envisioned it.

Okay. Let’s get to the meat and the cheese….before you get all crazy and start stabbing your screen in attempt to murder me through your computer.

Here are some of the befores and afters…

Did your pants just fall off? Because mine did.

And the side porch is now a way to get your clothing off too. Teenage boys would flock to this place if they knew my exterior was a panty dropper

More random photos…

Okay…remember the back of the house? Of course you did. Unless you have the worlds shortest short term memory because I just showed it to you five seconds ago. Three if you are a fast scroller.

We still have more stuff we have planned for back here but it’s coming along nicely.

Oh and I wanted to show you this door….

It’s the one that had so much damage to the frame that the guys had to fix before painting…

Now you can’t even tell…

They even cut out whole pieces of wood but you can’t tell from the finished product.

And yes, that doorknob on that double door will need replaced. It will look like this one eventually….

The garage side looks a million times better to me. We flipflopped the color scheme on the doors (instead of light doors with dark trim, we now have dark doors with light trim). I still need to paint the light fixture. It requires a ladder…so yeah….not in a hurry to do that chore.

And there is still a ton to do in the front (the maintenance on this piece of property is really time consuming so both Jer and I have to work on it a lot each week but it’s a small price to pay to live in such a nice house with such a dreamy private lot). On our list is to replace all the exterior door handles, add bed borders, switch from pine straw to mulch, plant about ten more plants in front of the garage side and center circle, add house numbers, get some nicer chairs for near the front door, and get a bistro set for the side porch. And that’s only what we want to do in front.

Your house looks like a castle. It is so stylish and I can only imagine how much time and efforts it took you to project the house and to think over all the smallest details. I like the style and the décor.

I did it! I figured out why Napoleon made all the crazy “design” (I use that word loosely in this case) choices he did on your house: all the gold fixtures, the poop-color exterior, all the crazy interior carpet and paint colors… He was building a “Before” house! See, most people have to get an older house with a crazy 70s remodel to get that drastic “Before and After” reveal, but not you, you lucky kids! You got a modern house with enough funkiness to keep you occupied for years. So thank you, Napoleon… now come build one for me in Portland!

I love hearing about the plans you have for the front and I would love to hear more about your plans for the back! I loved the drawings you did when y’all were building the fire pit. I’m a nerd for stuff like that

I love the paint colors you picked! I know you mentioned the trim color in another post, but wasn’t able to find the darker color you painted on the doors in the back. Would you mind sharing it? Thanks!

so- you know how you read a blog, and you’re all like “wow, i think it looks great now. i wonder how the changes will make it look better” (knowing ALL the while it will, but ya know… i don’t have the eye?)
your kitchen and exterior rock my socks off. way to work hard and make your place…. yours.

Fabulous! Paint colors are great. And a 3-car garage! Ooo la la! I don’t think I’ve ever seen the garage view before. Totally jealous. Then again – it would just be one more car’s worth of space I would cram with junk I don’t need.

Second, I was curious what your thoughts were on choosing window treatments for windows facing the front of the house? I guess I am torn because my house is MUCH closer to the road than yours is and right now with blinds/closed curtains/open curtains I don’t like how the windows look so different from the street. I don’t want to choose a window treatment just based on how it looks from the street (I don’t want blinds in every window) but I’m just not loving the mix-match. What are your thoughts?

I think the painters did a great job and the outside looks way better than it did when you moved in. I do have a question, though, and I hope it doesn’t sound rude… Do you have any window treatments in your upstairs windows? Something just always looks really off to me when I see pictures of the front of your house with those big empty and dark windows. Are they there and you just can’t see from outside? I think it might be the lack of grilles that’s throwing me here but it makes the house look kind empty or unoccupied to me. Just curious.

Nope. Nothing yet. That room to the far left is the guest bedroom and the other one is Weston’s room. They both have black out shades (the white roll up kind) but the white looks horrible from the street…so we pull them up when it’s time for photos. Hopefully both rooms will get something soon!
xo – kb

OK, so, I have to ask… are you originally from Western PA?
“And yes, that doorknob on that double door will need replaced.” It’s the “will need replaced” that screams yer a sistah from the hood, n’at. That plus I remember something about the boyfriend lovin’ the Stillers.

Katie, your home looks lovely, but I take exception to the “dropping my pants” and teenage boys comments. Frankly, I think they’re beneath you. Couldn’t you use phrases that still convey excitement without resorting to phrases that are sexual in nature and really quite inappropriate? This is the worst ” Teenage boys would flock to this place if they knew my exterior was a panty dropper ” That’s just disgusting.

Your house looks amazing! *Slow clap* with the paint job. Very beautiful. Hey, if you happen to be needing our assistance in the future (we are going to be the world’s best screws, you know) you know where to reach us. https://www.facebook.com/outlawfasteners